Arborio Rice Pudding TWD

It is a Saturday night in Autumn. A gorgeous 51 year old woman feels the heat of the night. Is it perhaps a Spaniard, his hot breath on the back of her neck? Or a forgotten lover, here to reclaim the woman he never truly let go of in the inner depths of his heart?

Naw. She is at the stove making Arborio Rice Pudding.
And yes, this pudding may break her heart just like many men have done before. 'Why' you ask? Because she didn't read the part about bubbling away. No, she just assumed simmer. Never assume. The dawn of the morning will slap her in the noggin with reality. She is not a fan of reality. She prefers to believe that all the men in her grocery checkout line are there to give her money because she is an amazing woman. Reality is fat cells and gray hair. Reality sort of sucks. Why would anyone go on a reality show, and then who is dumber? Them? Or us for watching them? Where was I? Oh yeah, reality. Reality is why I am making rice pudding on a Saturday night.

This is week 3 for me with Tuesday's With Dorie and I am really enjoying it because so far these are all new things for me. But! Big but, get it? Yes, reality was a bitch this morning. It tasted good but was nothing near a pudding. Soupy sweet milk rice. Back to the stove with these babies, arborio and vanilla bean are too pricey to not try to rescue. Some other TWDer's tried reheating it and so I did too and it worked pretty well. Is it perfect? I have never had rice pudding so I don't know but who really cares? It tastes good and that is the real goal isn't it?

I doubled the recipe because the reality of 4 servings sort of sucked.

1/3 of the rice pudding was added to the scraped seeds of 1 vanilla bean.

1/3 of the rice pudding was added to 2 ounces of chopped bittersweet chocolate.
1/3 of the rice pudding was added to cinnamon, apricot and cranberry, but reheating this one didn't work out, it just turned color from the dried fruit cooking with it and the milk separated so you don't get a photo of that one because it is in the happy land of fertilize the planet.

Round 2, Sunday. I am making a double batch this time also, but with 4 cups of milk to start, get to the bubbling point and then we will see what happens. Stay tuned for the results.

30 minutes was not the time, nor was approximately 30 minutes. 45 minutes seemed to be the magic number. I still only got 4 servings, at least what I call a serving. Perhaps the extra milk would have made more but the cooking time would have been longer I am sure. Also, having never made rice pudding I may have gone 5 minutes too long. I just made sure I got it to a thickened stage.

I enjoyed this, but I absolutely love risotto and so with the cost of arborio, I will most likely make risotto instead of rice pudding.